MANILA, Philippines ? Senator Benigno ?Noynoy? Aquino III ? not Senator Manuel Villar ? might just be the administration's real ?secret candidate,? Nacionalista Party (NP) senatorial bet Gilbert Remulla said in a forum Wednesday.

?If there's anybody who's close to the administration, it would be Noynoy Aquino. It would be the Liberal Party (LP),? he said at the Fernandina Media Forum at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City.

Remulla made the attack as he denounced the ?black propaganda? circulating in text messages about a supposed clandestine alliance between Villar, Nacionalista's standard-bearer, and Malacañang.

There has been talk, which Malacañang has denied, that the administration would shift its support to Villar from the Lakas-Kampi candidate, former Defense Secretary Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro Jr., who has failed to generate high numbers in surveys.

But Remulla said that based on his track record, Villar had been a true opposition leader from the start, unlike Aquino and his party mates, whom he described as the ?Noy-Arroyo camp.?

He cited Villar's stint as Senate president, during which time the Senate had conducted investigations on the ?Hello Garci? controversy about the alleged rigging of the 2004 presidential elections, as well as the scuttled national broadband network deal with China's ZTE Corp.

But when the LP ?took out? Villar from the Senate presidency, ?they in turn made it so that no investigation against the administration would happen.?

The senators against Villar installed Senator Juan Ponce Enrile as Senate president, who had struck an alliance with the Arroyo administration.

?Who then is the secret candidate of the administration?? Remulla told reporters in an interview after the forum.